Main menu

New Contracts of Employment

Your Personal Data

Argyll and Bute Council will act as the ‘Data Controller’ for the personal data you provide to us. The Data Protection Officer, who is responsible for ensuring personal data is managed in accordance with data protection legislation, can be contacted as follows:

The Council collects and processes personal data relating to its employees to manage the employment relationship. The organisation is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.

What information do we collect?

The Council collects and processes a range of information about you. This includes:

medical or health information, including health surveillance, personal emergency evacuation plans (PEEPS), display screen equipment (DSE) assessment and whether or not you have a disability for which the organisation needs to make reasonable adjustments;

details of trade union membership;

PVG status and membership;

membership or registration with professional organisations;

information about health and safety incidents, accidents or near misses.

equal opportunities monitoring information, including information about your ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health and religion or belief also known as “sensitive personal data”.

Use of Council IT equipment including laptops and mobile phones.

When we are using sensitive personal data, our legal basis to do so is:

the purposes of performing or exercising obligations or rights of the employer or employee under employment law, such as not to discriminate against an employee or dismiss them unfairly;

the assessment of an employee's working capacity, subject to confidentiality safeguards

for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or in the case of a court order.

The Council collects this information in a variety of ways. For example, through the recruitment process data is collected through application forms; obtained from your passport or other identity documents such as your driving licence; from forms completed by you at the start of or during employment (such as benefit nomination forms); from correspondence with you; or through interviews, meetings or other assessments.

The organisation also collects personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers, information from employment background check providers and information from criminal records checks permitted by law.

Data is stored in a range of different places, including in your personnel file, in the organisation's HR management systems and in other IT systems (including the organisation's email system).

Why we need this information?

The Council needs to process these data to enter into an employment contract with you and to meet its obligations under your employment contract. The Council will process your data in accordance with the employment law, including the Employment Rights Acts 1996, the Equal Opportunity 2010, the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and enabled regulations, agreements with the NHS and Live Argyll, and other relevant legislation and subsequent updates. The Council will not collect any personal data from you that isn’t needed.

As listed in the table below, processing employee data allows the organisation to:

Council process

Legal/Contractual basis for the process

Run recruitment

Employment Rights Acts 1996 or necessary for the performance of a contract

Maintain accurate and up-to-date employment records and contact details (including details of who to contact in the event of an emergency), and records of employee contractual and statutory rights

Employment Rights Acts 1996, the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and enabled regulations, or necessary for the performance of a contract

Operate and keep a record of disciplinary and grievance processes, to ensure acceptable conduct within the workplace

Employment Rights Acts 1996 or necessary for the performance of a contract

Operate and keep a record of employee performance and related processes, to plan for career development, promotion processes, and succession planning and workforce management purposes

Employment Rights Acts 1996 or necessary for the performance of a contract

Operate and keep a record of absence and absence management procedures, to allow effective workforce management and ensure that employees are receiving the pay or other benefits to which they are entitled

Employment Rights Acts 1996 or necessary for the performance of a contract

Obtain occupational health advice, to ensure that it complies with duties in relation to individuals with disabilities, meet its obligations under health and safety law, and ensure that employees are receiving the pay or other benefits to which they are entitled

Employment Rights Acts 1996, the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and enabled regulations, or necessary for the performance of a contract

Operate and keep a record of other types of leave (including maternity, paternity, adoption, parental and shared parental leave), to allow effective workforce management, to ensure that the organisation complies with duties in relation to leave entitlement, and to ensure that employees are receiving the pay or other benefits to which they are entitled

Employment Rights Acts 1996 or necessary for the performance of a contract

Operate payroll/pension for employees

Employment Rights Acts 1996 or necessary for the performance of a contract

Ensure effective general HR and business administration

Employment Rights Acts 1996 or necessary for the performance of a contract

Provide references on request for current or former employees

Employment Rights Acts 1996 or necessary for the performance of a contract

Respond to and defend legal claims

Employment Rights Acts 1996, the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and enabled regulations, or necessary for the performance of a contract

Maintain and promote equality in the workplace

Employment Rights Acts 1996 or necessary for the performance of a contract

Some special categories of personal data, such as information about health or medical conditions, is processed to carry out employment law obligations (such as those in relation to employees with disabilities and for health and safety purposes). Information about trade union membership is processed to allow the organisation to operate payment of union subscriptions.

Where the organisation processes other special categories of personal data, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health or religion or belief, this is done for the purposes of equal opportunities monitoring. Data that the organisation uses for these purposes is anonymised or is collected with the express consent of employees, which can be withdrawn at any time. Employees are entirely free to decide whether or not to provide such data and there are no consequences of failing to do so.

What we will do with your information?

All of the information we collect from you will be processed by staff in the United Kingdom who will have been made aware of the confidentiality around personal data and will be shared with the recipients or categories of recipients listed below, including any potential employers you might work for upon termination of your contract with the council who may ask for a reference:

Your manager and the Council Senior Management;

Internal Council tax office for the purpose of recovering arrears of Council tax from council employees;

Use of Council of IT equipment may be monitored for the purpose of disciplinary proceedings.

Internal Council Benefit Office where appropriate;

For those working within the Health and Social Care Partnership service (HSCP) with the NHS;

Where the Council provides an external service (name of staff will be shared for cleaning of Fire stations, Police stations, ACHA offices, and catering and cleaning for North Lanarkshire Council);

Tribunal service and the Police as required;

Disclosure Scotland for purposes of processing PVG application form. The application form has its own consent section which you need to sign prior to us sending it to them. If you do not sign this form you will not be able to work in any of our educational establishments.

Your personal data will not be shared with anyone else unless there is a legal obligation for us to do so.

You should also be aware that your data will be stored on servers located within the United Kingdom; the data will not be processed outside the European Union. We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your data is kept securely and more information on how we do this can be provided on request to the Data Protection Officer.

How long will we keep your information?

We will usually keep your information for a minimum of the number of years outlined in the table below. After this period it will be destroyed under secure arrangements if it is no longer required for the lawful purpose for which it was obtained.

Council process

How long do we keep the information for

Run recruitment

1) Staff involved in the recruitment will delete all papers work 6 months after the interview date

2) All information entered online as part of the application process will be deleted 5 years after the last application.

3) Any PVG papers will be destroyed the day after termination of Employment

Maintain accurate and up-to-date employment records and contact details (including details of who to contact in the event of an emergency), and records of employee contractual and statutory rights

All papers will be deleted after termination of employment + 6 years

Operate and keep a record of disciplinary and grievance processes, to ensure acceptable conduct within the workplace

1) Normally, all papers will be deleted after termination of employment + 6 years

2) No warning given delete immediately

3) Informal warning delete after 3 months

4) Oral warning delete after 6 months

5) Written warning delete after 12 months

6) Final written disciplinary warning delete after 18 months

7) Disciplinary warnings involving children or vulnerable adults delete after 25 years from termination of employment

Operate and keep a record of employee performance and related processes, to plan for career development, promotion processes, and succession planning and workforce management purposes

1) Normally, all papers will be deleted after termination of employment + 6 years

2) If it relates to training for work with children or vulnerable adults delete after 25 years

Operate and keep a record of absence and absence management procedures, to allow effective workforce management and ensure that employees are receiving the pay or other benefits to which they are entitled

Normally, all papers will be deleted 3 years after the end of the current tax year.

Obtain occupational health advice, to ensure that it complies with duties in relation to individuals with disabilities, meet its obligations under health and safety law, and ensure that employees are receiving the pay or other benefits to which they are entitled

All papers will be kept for 40 years from date of last consultation as per Health and Safety Executive website (on record keeping)

Operate and keep a record of other types of leave (including maternity, paternity, adoption, parental and shared parental leave), to allow effective workforce management, to ensure that the organisation complies with duties in relation to leave entitlement, and to ensure that employees are receiving the pay or other benefits to which they are entitled

1) Normally, all papers will be deleted 2 years after the end of the current year.

2) In the case of Paternity and Maternity leave this will be deleted 3 years after current tax year.

Operate payroll/pension for employees

As per HMRC rules data should be deleted 5 years after end of current tax year, but HMRC rules also states that question can be raised regarding data going back 25 years. Therefore the Council has made the decision to keep this data indefinitely.

Ensure effective general HR and business administration

All papers will be deleted after termination of employment + 6 years

Provide references on request for current or former employees

All papers will be deleted after termination of employment + 6 years

Respond to and defend against legal claims

All papers will be deleted after termination of employment + 6 years

Maintain and promote equality in the workplace

All papers will be deleted after termination of employment + 6 years

More information on our retention schedule can be provided on request to the Data Protection Officer.

Your Rights

When you provide information to the Council, you will have the following rights:

to withdraw consent at any time, where the lawful basis specified above is consent

to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office – see below for details

to request access to your personal data – please contact the Data Protection Officer if you wish to submit a request.

to data portability, where the Legal basis specified above is i) consent or ii) performance of a contract

to request rectification or erasure of your personal data, as far as the legislation permits – please contact the Data Protection Officer and provide details of what data you wish to be rectified or erased.

You can find out more about your rights in relation to data protection here: www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/data-protection or from the Data Protection Officer by telephone or in writing, as detailed above.

Information Commissioner’s Office

The ICO is the UK’s independent body set up to uphold information rights.